Ed Rendell To Operation Wall Street Protesters: Go Home

Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell (D) tells Laura Ingraham the Operation Wall Street people have made their point and if they continue to act out and not funnel their energy into politics, then their actions will have a "boomerang" effect.

Rendell: Probably a good analogy, Laura, is 1968, when someone finally channeled college kids' energies into electoral politics. And they went up to New Hampshire and they put on ties and jackets and they went door to door and they talked about the war and Gene McCarthy got 43% of the vote and brought down Lyndon Johnson. So yeah, I think that's Rich Trumka is trying to do. And again, look, I don't agree with their message. I mean the guys in Philadelphia said they're going to be here all winter. Well that's silly. You've made your point, you've gotten about all the publicity you're going to get. Now get on with your lives and if you really care about this stuff, organize at the ballot box. You know, we can yell and--our side, we can yell and scream about the tea party, but the tea party folks understood how to make change in 2010. They got out and voted.

Ingraham: If you don't connect this to the lives of regular people and they sort of see you encamped, the porta-johns being turned over in New York, now Bloomberg's even saying it's hurting small businesses and police overtime and it's costing a lot of money to the city. When that starts to happen, I think people start to get ticked off. And I think it could have a boomerang effect the other way.

Rendell: There's no question. What happened--the protests--the anti-war movement in 1968 was doing well electorally until the convention in Chicago. And everything blew up at the convention in Chicago. Poor Hubert Humphrey had absolutely zero chance coming out of that convention because the protests turned ugly, it was violent, it wasn't productive, it wasn't peaceful anymore and it turned people off dramatically. And I think there is a risk here. There's a real risk here if it goes that way. And that's why the Rich Trumkas and all those people should be talking to the protesters and saying 'look, you made your point. You don't think by sitting here you're going to bring about change in law by just sitting here. No legislative body is going to be blackmailed. But you've made your point, you've gotten publicity for the things you've wanted to say. Now let's get out there and organize. Go home, clean up, organize, and go.'

Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell (D) tells Laura Ingraham the Operation Wall Street people have made their point and if they continue to act out and not funnel their energy into politics, then their actions will have a "boomerang" effect.

Rendell: Probably a good analogy, Laura, is 1968, when someone finally channeled college kids' energies into electoral politics. And they went up to New Hampshire and they put on ties and jackets and they went door to door and they talked about the war and Gene McCarthy got 43% of the vote and brought down Lyndon Johnson. So yeah, I think that's Rich Trumka is trying to do. And again, look, I don't agree with their message. I mean the guys in Philadelphia said they're going to be here all winter. Well that's silly. You've made your point, you've gotten about all the publicity you're going to get. Now get on with your lives and if you really care about this stuff, organize at the ballot box. You know, we can yell and--our side, we can yell and scream about the tea party, but the tea party folks understood how to make change in 2010. They got out and voted.

Ingraham: If you don't connect this to the lives of regular people and they sort of see you encamped, the porta-johns being turned over in New York, now Bloomberg's even saying it's hurting small businesses and police overtime and it's costing a lot of money to the city. When that starts to happen, I think people start to get ticked off. And I think it could have a boomerang effect the other way.

Rendell: There's no question. What happened--the protests--the anti-war movement in 1968 was doing well electorally until the convention in Chicago. And everything blew up at the convention in Chicago. Poor Hubert Humphrey had absolutely zero chance coming out of that convention because the protests turned ugly, it was violent, it wasn't productive, it wasn't peaceful anymore and it turned people off dramatically. And I think there is a risk here. There's a real risk here if it goes that way. And that's why the Rich Trumkas and all those people should be talking to the protesters and saying 'look, you made your point. You don't think by sitting here you're going to bring about change in law by just sitting here. No legislative body is going to be blackmailed. But you've made your point, you've gotten publicity for the things you've wanted to say. Now let's get out there and organize. Go home, clean up, organize, and go.'

You've made your point, you've gotten about all the publicity you're going to get. Now get on with your lives

The problem is that most of them don't have a life to go home to. After seeing these people on the news and first hand every day, many seem rather lost and this movement is the messiah they thought they were seeking. They are fertile minds and this has become a Jim Jones moment.